Waterworks – Linden TX

Description

In 1933 Linden, the county seat of Cass County, had no sanitary water or sewer systems. When fire broke out in the county courthouse in August of that year, the only way to try and extinguish it was by hand pumping water from local wells and citizens forming bucket brigades to get water to the site. In the same year, typhoid fever plagued the town. This was blamed on the water wells being shallow and ofte n located close to barns and outhouses.

The city commissioners made a decision to build a city-wide water and sewer system, which was to include a high-capacity deep well, an elevated storage tank, and a sewage disposal plant. The commissioners contacted Wright Patman, the United States Representative for their district. Just weeks prior to the courthouse fire, Congress had passed the National Industrial Recovery Act establishing the Public Works Administration (PWA). Patman was instrumental in securing a PWA grant/loan package of $50,000 for the Linden water works and sewer system. The final contract for the water works included a new well, pumping station, 50,000 gallon elevated storage tank, and a complement of single valve fire hydrants, several of which remain in service.

The city decommissioned the storage tank from service in the municipal water system in November 2015. The city is planning to preserve it as a historic resource. The Linden Heritage Foundation is developing a Request for Proposal for private development that includes a robust package of tax incentives and an offer of conveyance of title to the site at no cost to a qualified development project.